Curling star Neil Harrison dies

Neil Harrison

Mere days after two golden moments on the world stage at the Sochi Olympics, the Canadian curling community is mourning the loss of one of its favourites.

Newmarket resident Neil Harrison died this morning after battling cancer and a series of mini strokes in recent years.

Harrison, 64, was a member of the storied Ed Werenich rink, also dubbed The Dream Team, which was a two-time world champion and participated in four Canadian Briers. As lead for Werenich, he helped the rink, which also included Paul Savage and John Kawaja, to victory over Germany’s Keith Wendorf in the Air Canada Silver Broom final in Regina in 1983. In 1990, he served as the alternate for Werenich’s rink in the 1990 championships in Sweden.

The 1983 rink was inducted into the Canadian Curling Hall of Fame in 1991.

A retired Toronto firefighter, Harrison was recruited to help prepare a Russian rink for the Sochi Olympic Games, where Canada swept gold in both men’s and women’s categories last week. Over the years, he had several opportunities to help coach teams from abroad.

Despite the success of the Werenich rink, the timing for Olympics was just slightly off. Although a demonstration sport in the 1988 Games in Calgary, it wasn’t until later that the sport was included in the Olympic Games lineup as a medal sport.

“The Olympics wasn’t there, so it wasn’t really a goal for us,” Harrison said in a York Region Media Group story in 2011. “Once it was there and we got that close, yeah, it would have been nice. But we played in a lot of big things in the sport. So, no, I’m not looking back with regret.”